A close-up look at NYC education policy, politics,and the people who have been, are now, or will be affected by acts of corruption and fraud. ATR CONNECT assists individuals who suddenly find themselves in the ATR ("Absent Teacher Reserve") pool and are the "new" rubber roomers, and re-assigned. The terms "rubber room" and "ATR" mean that you or any person has been targeted for removal from your job. A "Rubber Room" is not a place, but a process.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

David Paker and The Plant That Ate Children

The article below was posted in 2009, and gives you background for the posting about Attorney Laura Brantley and her becoming Director of the ATU - "Administrative Trials Unit" - "Gotcha Squad.

Betsy Combier

NYC Teachers Sue The BOE For Rubber Room Assignments...Again

The plant in the picture above may look like the plant that you have in your apartment,
have seen everyday at your work, or in your school. According to the
New York City Board of Education, however, it was this plant, or one
very similar, that theadministration of High School of Fashion Industries
on 24th and 7th Avenue in Manhattan believed swallows children whole
when teacher David Pakter bought it and donated it to the school. The
purchase and donation of this dangerous threat to children sent esteemed
teacher David Pakter back to the gulag called the "Rubber Room" to
punish him for his crime of purchasing such a thing for the school lobby
area. He is currently undergoing his second 3020-a hearing at 51
Chambers Street, and has filed two federal lawsuits in response to the
NYC BOE's pattern of 'rubberizing' whistleblowers and teachers who speak
up about wrong-doing in NYC schools. See below.

Union
members and administrators are treated very differently in the New York
City public school system. A principal who discriminates or does
something else that is illegal or corrupt does not get the same
punishment as a teacher or staff member, who, more often than not
(especially if the individual is not 'politically connected'), is
removed from the school - either fired immediately if this person is not
tenured, or re-assigned to a "rubber room" if he/she has tenure. Anyone
with tenure is reviewed by the NYC "Gotcha Squad",
charged, and scheduled for a Hearing at which there is a disposition.
This is a business, and the buyer is the City of New York.

Take Marcel Kshensky, for instance. He was Principal at the
school where George Lawson was a teacher. George sued Marcel
for racial discrimination, and what does the NYC BOE do? Move Marcel to
the Administrative Trials Unit (ATU) where he does Grievances. You can
meet him any day at 51 Chambers Street in Manhattan, 6th floor.

They claim the Chancellor has no authority to
charge or hold them, and that conditions in the rooms are unpleasant and
dangerous.

Among the plaintiffs is David Pakter, who has portrayed himself as a whistleblower
against the poor administration of city schools, and claims that
because of his attempts to bring them to the city's attention, "Joel
Klein, Esq.'s lapdogs, lackeys, sycophants and stooges, leaped out from
under their countless dark and clammy rocks and went after me like a bat
out of Hell" for bringing plants to his school, showing students the
Robert Rodriguez film El Mariachi, and other trivialities.

David
Pakter with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at a 1997 City Hall ceremony where
he was honored as a Teacher of the Year with his colleagues from other
vocational schools. The mayor praised Pakter’s “outstanding achievement
as a vocational school teacher in our city’s public schools, your work
with parents and with the community, your solid and innovative teaching
methods and your ability to create a stimulating learning environment.”

Another plaintiff, Josefina Cruz, was one of no less than nine teachers (see below as well) sent to rubber rooms by Graphics Communications Arts HS principal Jerod Resnick.

Teachers
have brought suit against the city on similar grounds before, and
occasionally the press pays outraged attention, but the rubbers rooms
persist; Mayor Bloomberg is against them, too, but on the grounds that
the teachers thus charged and confined should not be paid.

On Tuesday, the Village Voice blog
reported on the lawsuit some educators filed in federal court against
the DoE's rubber room abuses. Pakter apparently sent in a comment, but I
don't see it's been posted there yet. Maybe it will be, but for now
it's in the sidebar of this blog.

SMALL ADDITION TO THIS POST:
At
someone's request, Pakter gives a 3-part update to his case in the
comments below and has now sent around some pictures of his famous
plants — the subject of the latest charges brought against him by the
DoE. Since I can't illustrate the comments, here is one of the offending
plants.

The other one is also green, I guess.

I've posted
Pakter before (feisty alliteration) and need to do it again, not only
for the breadth of his commentary, but for his insight into the way this
malevolent chancellorship distorts a profession and maims a generation
of kids.

He wrote this to Norm Scott of Ednotes fame.

In New York City, Whistle-blower Teachers — of Joel Klein's School System — Get Blown Away

Dear Norm:

I read Ed Notes religiously, every day, as well as some of the other
excellent Education websites, although nothing even comes close to your
Ed Notes- may it go on till you are one hundred and perhaps for a few
years after that.

All the present fuss over New York City
Teachers reporting cheating truly amuses this old geezer writing to you.
Not that the topic is not important.

Shocked- just shocked.
You mean to say there are really car thieves and illegal Betting Parlors
in every big City in America. Impossible - How can that be ??

So what else is new. Cheating went on in every school I ever taught in
and at the High School where I taught for twenty five years, mark
altering / "improving"/ "updating" - was raised to a virtual "art".

I wonder if Principals demand Kickbacks for all the gallons of
"white-out" they order every June to ensure that their graduation totals
will look even better and rosier than the previous year's stellar
"improvement".

As for using a "Passing" Regents grade as an
excuse to ignore a Failing Class Grade score- how the heck do you think
they come up with those "regents scores".

At my former
school, and I am sure many would not be surprised to learn, at 99 % of
the NYC High Schools, all Regents Scores are referred to as a student's
"Raw Regents Score". That is to say- the actual grade the student earned
on the actual Regents Examination.

Then at my former school,
the teachers were actually given printed "Regents Score Conversion
Graphs" that indicated what to enter as the student's final official
Regents grade in a particular subject- such as Earth Science for
example.

If the student achieved a real grade of 43 for
example- the teacher just ran his/her finger across the graph to find
that this "raw" score was to be converted to a 65, for example. You can
imagine what a "raw score" of 65, became in the final adjustment.
"Harvard University - here we come".

When it comes to grades and grading, the entire 23 Billion dollar NYC DOE is one big scam from A to Z.

As for a Teacher going to "The Office of Special Investigations"- please - give me a break.

That office is the slickest shell game of all. Sure, they bust a
small time independent electrical contractor from time to time just to
make it look like they are really doing "Investigations".

But
their real purpose for existing is to put out potential political fires
before they even have a chance to become fires. I went to them with
tons of stuff and got stone-walled every time. I know everyone down
there by name. That office is a total crock.

I shall never
forget the day, after I was most unceremoniously removed from my school
(after I refused to surrender evidence in my possession of egregious
Federal Civil Rights violations as well as financial fraud being
perpetrated by the Principal and her cronies), when I received a very
brief call on my cell phone.

I had just been removed and
illegally transferred to a Rubber Room gulag in Brooklyn. The caller was
one of several SCI "investigators", (most of them former or retired NYC
Police Officers), assigned to look into the allegations I had reported
to that agency on several different occasions.

His words were- and I recall them as though it were yesterday:

"Mr. Pakter, I am just calling you to inform you that I have been
ordered to close the book on your case". The call was that short and
simple.

But then again, you find this situation existing in
the NYPD, the US Army, Mega Corporations, the US Post Office et al. It
is the way of the world.

Anyone who seeks to have any type of
wrongdoing investigated, quickly discovers that he or she soon becomes
the prime object of "investigation".

It is, and has been the way of the world since the Dawn of Time- "Bad News- Then Kill the Messenger".

When I observe all those teacher "nubies" running down to SCI at 80
Maiden Lane in lower Manhattan, a stone's throw from Wall Street, to
report horrendous and outrageous criminal activity in the NYC DOE,
schools system, I never really know whether I should laugh or cry.

Any one who Whistle-blows in NYC, or most other places just doesn't
understand that he or she has just signed and Notarized their own "Death
Warrant".

As for going to the Newspapers- "paleeeeeze"- give
me a break. Who do you think owns and controls the news media- and I
mean 99 % to all of it ???

But every year, as sure as Day
follows Night, some young group of idealistic Teachers, God Bless their
innocent and naive beautiful Souls, goes running all over the Universe-
here, there and everywhere, crying "the sky is falling".

You bet it is, right down squarely on their soon to be chopped off innocent heads.

We old timers smile and just send out our warmest telepathic
messages of Love to all the Teacher Whistle-blowers in Gotham and wish
them our deepest and most sincere hopes for Good Luck and that they may
emerge at the far end of the SCI gauntlet with a little of their
tattered skin still hanging from their bloodied backs and torn and
broken bodies.

Can an old Geezer like me fault these young
idealistic Teachers for all their efforts to make the system better for
all the powerless and vulnerable children in NYC- most of whom are
already "at Risk", from the moment when they first emerge from their
Mother's womb and cry their very first cry.

Who am I to fault
and be the least bit cynical that someone wants to protect Gotham's
children. When I stare at the face of a NYC Teacher "Nubie'", all pink
cheeked and eyes shining, hurrying through the ever-revolving glass
doors at 52 Broadway, knapsack heavy with text books hanging over their
shoulders, who, my old friend, am I really looking at, but the perfect
reflection of who I myself was, almost 40 years ago, starting out in the
world of Education in New York City.

I thought back then, as
a young Teacher, in the South East Bronx and later, working in Bed-Stuy
and Harlem and finally via my self created Medical Program for gifted
Minority students at Art & Design High School, that I could, by
sheer dint of hard work and a driving Idealistic vision of the Universe
make a difference.

That somehow "Good" would triumph over
"Evil", honest "Idealism" would or could vanquish rampant corruption,
and that somehow, by hook or by crook- I would make a "Difference"- even
if just a small degree of difference.

Tell me dear God, I did make a difference.

Tell me my old and dear friend, Norman Scott, that it was not all for nothing.

And that those young Teachers presently fighting the good fight we
both began to fight also, in our long distant Youth, so many decades
ago, long before the present Whistle-blowers were so much as a glint in
their Mother's and Father's eyes- oh please do tell me that they will
succeed where we failed to make things better.

Hey Jude-
please tell me that things can and will be better and that some good and
healing force in the Universe- call it what you will, can and will wash
away all those twisted and demented minds and sorry excuses for human
beings, who for now at least, have temporarily hijacked the futures of
all of Gotham's innocent children and are Hell bent on privatizing all
Education in Gotham and turning it all into one gargantuan,
multi-billion dollar, For Profit, enterprise.

In some cases trading their future lives and future hopes for a bag of Silver coins.

And I still see, when I lay me down to sleep each night all the
laughing, beautiful faces and shining innocent eyes of my former gifted,
so very gifted and talented, Medical students in Room 316, so radiant
with great expectations and so deserving of Hope, that this present
Chancellor, a pathetic "Legend in his own mind", via his countless
lackeys, lapdogs and stooges and confederates, criminally robbed from
their futures when I, as payment for becoming a Whistle-blower myself,
was so violently torn from their school and so violently torn from their
Lives.

Despite
having suffered a hernia and a knee injury, 64-year-old Madelyn
Dimitracopoulos of Flushing HS was given four different classrooms in
one year as apparent retribution for filing a grievance

The UFT has filed an age discrimination complaint against the Department of Education
and accused it of condoning illegal acts in forcing teachers to retire.
The complaint charges that school administrators are using fear and
intimidation to drive experienced, qualified teachers out of the
classroom.

Filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
the complaint states that the DOE has “knowingly permitted school
administrators to employ a practice of discrimination that took the form
of unjust and unfounded criticism, abuse of the observation process and
blatant disregard of seniority in making classroom assignments,” all
designed to harass and intimidate senior teachers.

UFT President
Randi Weingarten said that the problem escalated under Chancellor Klein,
whose administration had exhibited “a disdain for experience.” She said
that during the 2002-03 school year, for example, 90.5 percent of
teachers facing dismissal and loss of license charges were over the age
of 40 while only 63.4 percent of all tenured teachers were 40 and over.

In
nearly every case intil Chancellor Klein’s stewardship, the senior
teachers had exemplary records of satisfactory ratings. Many teachers
had 20 to 30 years of unblemished records. The complaint said these
veteran teachers were victims of abusive principals who often made
disparaging remarks about them being stuck in the past, or about these
members relying on “old” methods of teaching or not being able to stand
up all day.

One principal, Jerod Resnick of Graphic Arts HS in
Manhattan, said his school needed “young, energetic teachers.” He drove
out nearly every senior teacher, forcing transfers for some and
retirement for others.

The complaint was accompanied by
statistics (see box) showing that a preponderance of unsatisfactory
ratings were given to senior teachers, far above what the average would
be if it was nothing more than a statistical coincidence.

The
harassment was not limited to a paper trail of unsatisfactory ratings.
In one particularly egregious case, Madelyn Dimitracopoulos, 64, who
despite having suffered a hernia was given four different classrooms in
one year as apparent retribution for filing a grievance.

Dimitracopoulos,
who started teaching at Flushing HS in 1962, was also having trouble
carrying a full set of books from room to room. The complaint specifies
that English Department chair Celeste Burton was also aware that the
teacher had torn her meniscus ligament and had to leave school in a
wheelchair. Despite that, Burton yelled at teachers and a student not to
help the teacher, who was struggling in lifting her books.

“I
will not be driven out of this school,” Dimitracopoulos said. “I love my
kids and they are doing well,” she added, pointing to a 77 percent
passing rate for her Regents class. The lengths to which Burton has gone
to force Dimitracopoulos to resign are not your garden-variety
harassment tricks. The veteran teacher said that she has been followed
into the bathroom, where Burton screamed at her about a minor issue of
adjusting marks. She said Burton has also come into her Regents review
class unannounced and rummaged through closets, allegedly looking for
books. Until last year, Dimitracopoulos had received Satisfactory
ratings every year since 1962.

Things weren’t much better for Edmond Farrell at John Adams HS. He, too, was subjected to abuse, after 13 years in the building.

Farrell,
67, said he first got on Principal Grace Zwillenberg’s list when he
crossed swords with her over the need for portable classrooms at the
school. “Ever since then,” he said, “she has been making disparaging
remarks about me, even though I have been honored for my work.” The
scores of students in his math classes, he said, improved by the
equivalent of two full years. Before teaching, Farrell was in the
business world. “I got a great deal of satisfaction — a thrill, really —
to see failing math students show their parents a certificate with an
80 instead of a 60,” he said. Farrell also offered to transfer out of
the school, but was rebuffed by Zwillenberg.

In an accompanying
affidavit to the EEOC complaint, Weingarten provided a list of examples
that sounds like a “how to harass senior teachers” horror show. The
examples seemed to fall into a pattern, almost as if administrators were
being taught in a seminar “how to get rid of qualified, experienced
teachers,” including trumped-up charges of corporal punishment and
insubordination.

Perhaps the most invidious cases are occurring
at Graphic Arts, where the principal’s discriminatory actions roped in
19 teachers over the age of 40 who were subjected to discriminatory
treatment.

In one case, an assistant principal at the school,
Eric Brand, told English teacher Midge Maroni that she had old ideas,
that “the kids won’t go for Macbeth.”

Maroni also said that
Resnick spoke adoringly of younger teachers in his newsletter. “The
education spirits have smiled on us,” Resnick wrote in October 2005. “A
new, younger teacher has joined our staff.” Maroni said she has never
observed Resnick make similar remarks about older, experienced teachers.
Resnick also claims that Brand, on at least 30 occasions, subjected her
to “repeated, unannounced observations of short duration, for the
purported purpose of evaluating my pedagogical skills.”

The
harassment went beyond the usual measures employed by principals to get
teachers to retire. At Brandeis HS, the principal, Eloise Messianeo,
told Joy Hochstadt, 66, that a teacher “who can’t stand up the entire
day should retire.”

Linda Kuznesoff-Herman, 57, was told by
Jonathan Straughn, the principal at PS 276 in Brooklyn, that she would
not be rehired as literacy coach because he needed “new blood” in the
school. Straughn accused her of being at the stage where teachers become
“battle weary.” Kuznesoff-Herman was rejected for the position despite
her 25 years’ experience, which included four years as a literacy staff
developer and two years as a literacy coach. The position was given to a
younger teacher who had no prior experience teaching gifted students,
but, incidentally, was one whom Kuznesoff-Herman had trained.

Another
teacher, faced with students who would rather fight than learn, was
told by Ivan Kushner, the principal at PS 19 in Manhattan, that “the
classroom setup (Standards-Based Classroom) supports positive pupil
interactions.” Apparently, the students didn’t read this tome, because
they continued fighting in class. Kushner then proposed a “reward
system” to improve student behavior. The fights continued, so Kushner
resorted to another claim from the administrator’s bag of tricks: It
must be the teacher’s fault. She “lacked classroom management skills.”
From 1972 through 2003, however, the teacher had received only
satisfactory ratings.

Age bias?

At PS 721 in Queens, the
principal’s desire to rid the school of undesirable geezer teachers even
affected the students. Not content with giving teacher Sidney Rubinfeld
the cold shoulder by refusing to speak to him and even witholding
classroom keys, the principal, Madeline Hassell, stood by like the
Sphinx and watched Rubinfeld try to restrain a student who was acting
out. In similar situations involving younger teachers and disruptive
students, the principal intervened. Rubinfeld was told by Hassell that
his years of seniority were “dead years.”

The EEOC is
investigating the charges. If the agency decides that there is merit to
the complaints, it can become an advocate for the teachers and can file a
lawsuit on their behalf. If the EEOC fails to find merit, the teachers
can sue on their own in federal court.

* 85.3 percent of the 143 UFT members brought up on 3020a charges during the last school year were over 40.
* 90 percent of pedagogues hit with 3020a disciplinary charges during the 2003-04 school year were over the age of 40.
* 3 90.5 percent of the 126 members brought up on 3020a charges during the 2002-03 school year were over 40.
* 78 percent of the 729 educators who received
unsatisfactory annual performance ratings for the last school year were over 40.
* 63.4 percent of tenured members are over 40.

GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION ARTS HS TEACHERS SUING FOR AGE DISCRIMINATION WILL FINALLY GET THEIR DAY IN COURTLINK

Back
in 2005 forty-five teachers filed a complaint with the EEOC that the
DOE had discriminated against them because they were over 40 years old.
The Daily News reported the filing and Randi Weingarten announced at the
time that "88% of teachers brought up on disciplinary charges in the
last three years were over 40."

A lawsuit involving 12 of the
teachers, filed in 2006, is finally coming to trial. While some of the
claims have been dismissed on technical grounds the 12 teachers have won
significant gains.

In Shapiro v. NYC DOE,
06 Civ. 1836, 2008 U.S. Dist. Lexis 46327, Judge Jed Rakoff found that
during the 2004-2005 school year, five teachers were transferred from
Graphic Communication Arts and reassigned to another school. All were
over age forty. In June 2005, sixteen teachers at GCA were given
unsatisfactory ratings ("U ratings") for the year. Of the 16, thirteen
were over the age of 40. A year later, in June 2006, eight teachers
received U ratings, only one of whom was under age forty.

One of
the teachers given a U rating in 2005 was plaintiff Diana Friedline, who
was 53 years old at the time. Friedline has a New York State teaching
license in commercial art and a New York City teaching license in cold
type composition. She had been a full time teacher since 1989. In the
Spring of 2005, Friedline applied for a curriculum writing position at
GCA. The principal told Friedline that Friedline was not eligible for
the position because she was certified with the wrong license. Friedline
filed a grievance objecting to her non-selection for the position,
which was denied. Friedline also applied to have a substitute vocational
assistant student teacher placed in her classroom; but this application
was also denied. When Friedline complained to the principal that these
actions were prompted by age discrimination, he told her that he
preferred to hire younger candidates. In June 2005, Friedline was giving
a U rating for the year.

One of the teachers given a U rating in
both years was plaintiff Josefina Cruz, who was 58 years old in June
2005. She has been a teacher of Spanish at GCA since 2003. In the Spring
of 2005, she received 24 classroom visits in a two-month period, which
she testified was well above the norm. Her schedule was changed seven
times in two weeks. She was then given a U rating for the year. In
January, 2006, Cruz failed to administer the oral portion of the Spanish
regents exam because she had not been given exam materials, which were
kept in a vault to which she had no access. She was then given a U
rating for the 2005 year, served with disciplinary charges, and
reassigned to the Manhattan rubber room.

Another teacher who was
given a U rating in 2005 was plaintiff Anthony Ferraro, who was then 72
years old. He began teaching at GCA in 1985. In May, 2003, the principal
requested that teachers planning to retire contact him to let him know
of their plans. Ferraro contacted the principal but then changed his
mind and decided not to retire. When Ferraro told the principal of his
change in plans, the principal asked Ferraro's age and then expressed
"extreme dismay" that Ferraro was planning to say on at the school In
December, 2004, Assistant Principal Johnson repeatedly chided Ferraro
for continuing to work and reminded Ferraro that Ferraro could be doing
other things with his life, such as spending time with his wife and
traveling. Similarly, Assistant Principal Seyfried told Ferrarro that he
did not understand why Ferraro was still working and that Ferraro
should have retired long ago. In June, 2003, the principal told Ferraro
that Ferraro was doing a "deplorable job" coordinating the "LEARN"
program, a work-study program through which Ferraro coordinated
employment opportunities for GCA students in their chosen fields of
study. The principal also told Ferraro that his teaching style was
"outmoded" and "outdated."

In September, 2003, Ferraro was
removed from his position as LEARN coordinator, but a year later he was
reassigned to the position but given less time to perform the necessary
work. In January 2005, Ferraro was removed from the position once again
and replaced by a younger teacher who was not properly licensed to act
as coordinator. Also, in September 2004, Ferraro, a licensed peer
mentor, applied to serve as a mentor to new teachers, but the position
was given to someone 20 years his junior who was not a certified mentor.
Finally, on June 13, 2005, the principal told Ferraro his teaching
style was "antiquated" and then days later, Ferraro received a U rating
for the year.

Another plaintiff is Diana Hrisinko, who is
currently 64 years old. She began teaching at GCA in 2002. Beginning in
the fall of 2004, Resnick would come into her classroom unannounced,
sometimes as often as five times per week. On February 1, 2005, Hrisinko
was transferred from GCA and thereafter worked briefly as a substitute
teacher before assuming a position at another school. She filed a
grievance claiming that her transfer was illegal because younger
teachers with less seniority remained in their positions at GCA.

Plaintiff
Elaine Jackson is currently 69 years old and was the Assistant
Principal for the English Department at GCA for one semester in the fall
of 2003. During her one semester as Assistant Principal, Jackson
increased the passing ratio of the English Regents exam. At no time did
the principal tell her that he was dissatisfied with her performance.
Nonetheless, she was fired in January 2005 and replaced with a younger
male who lacked relevant experience for the position.

Plaintiff
Midge Maroni, currently 61 years old, began teaching at GCA in 2002. She
testified that in early 2003 she was "subjected to ageist comments and
unjust criticism" as "Resnick [the principal] repeatedly made references
to his desire to have a staff of young teachers." Resnick also said
things such as "you don't take your profession seriously, you have old
ideas." Maroni was subjected to frequent short, unannounced visits to
her classroom from Assistant Principal Brand. During 2005, while Maroni
was acting as advisor for the school newspaper, she complained to
Resnick that her students lacked access to computers to produce the
paper; the next year, a younger teacher received a computer to use for
this purpose. In June, 2005, Maroni received a U rating for the year.
The U was later dismissed in an arbitration proceeding.

Plaintiff
Geraldine F. Whittington, currently 61 years old, began teaching at GCA
in 1986. She has a state teaching license in Graphic Arts. Whittington
testified that, beginning in 2004, Resnick criticized her for taking
sick time to which she was entitled, threatened her with a U rating and
treated her with hostility, refusing to address her or make eye contact.
When Resnick visited her classroom, he glared at her in an obtrusive
and hostile manner. In the spring of 2004, the computers and scanners in
Whittington's classroom broke. Whittington heard that new computer
equipment was given to younger teachers rather than to her (despite her
seniority). Whittington retired effective July 1, 2004.

Plaintiff
Fitzroy Kington, currently 58 years old, began teaching at GCA in 1992.
During 2004-2005, Resnick repeatedly stood outside of Kington's
classroom and shook his head disapprovingly. Assistant Principal Guttman
told Kington that Resnick wanted younger, more energetic teachers on
staff, and asked when Kington was leaving (even though Kington had not
indicated that he had any plan to leave the school). During a social
studies exhibition, Kington heard Resnick refer to "old, burnt out,
tired teachers" who gave children detention and told them they were no
good. In May 2005, Kington applied to transfer to another school.

Plaintiff
Gloria Chavez, currently 59 years old, began teaching at GCA in 2002.
During the 2004-2005 school year, Resnick began a pattern of yelling at
Chavez and threatening disciplinary action against her. He also told her
that she looked "tired," should start drinking caffeinated coffee and
should modernize her teaching style. In 2006, Chavez did not administer
the oral portion of the Spanish regents exam because she was never given
the required materials by Assistant Principal Silverman Chavez was then
served with disciplinary charges, given a U rating, and reassigned to
the Manhattan Regional Operation Center.

Plaintiff Erica
Weingast, currently 60 years old, became GCA's bilingual coordinator in
2001. In 2003-2004, Weingast was removed from an after-school assignment
teaching English, and the position was given to a teacher who was 30
years younger than Weingast. Between 2003 and 2005, Weingast was
"subjected to a campaign of harassment which entailed unwarranted
criticisms of her management of [the] bi-lingual studies program." In
June, 2004, Resnick began to scream at her in public and humiliate her
at school. In June 2005, defendants told her to expect a U rating or
resign; Weingast resigned.

Plaintiff Ismael Diaz, currently 64
years old, began teaching at GCA in 2003. During the fall of 2004,
Silverman was "constantly" coming into Diaz's classroom, commenting on
trivial matters and asking Diaz to attend to a bulletin board in the
hallway. She also checked his lessons plans more than once a week. In
May 2004, Resnick and Silverman observed one of Diaz's lessons and rated
it "unsatisfactory". Resnick refused to speak to Diaz when Diaz said
"Good Morning" in the halls. Diaz was given a U rating at the end of the
2004-2005 school year and decided to retire.

In order to prove
an Age Discrimination in Employment Act case the teachers are required
to show that they suffered an "adverse employment action." This has been
defined as suffering a materially adverse change in the terms of
employment. A teacher is not required to show a change in income or
reduction of benefits. Thus teachers reassigned to the rubber room or
receiving a "U" rating can show adverse employment actions, something
the City has fought hard to prevent.

Judge Rakoff found that both
"U" ratings and rubber room transfers can, if shown in the context of
an Age Discrimination claim, be grounds for recovery.

The plaintiffs will have their day in Court to prove their claims before a jury in Manhattan Federal Court.
Posted by Jeff Kaufman at 7/13/2008 10:41:00 AM

The
principal of a Midtown vocational high school is being accused of
harassing and unfairly punishing teachers he doesn't like - including
the school's entire Spanish department.

Since his arrival at Graphics Communications Arts HS in 2003, principal Jerod Resnick
has sent nine teachers to a so-called "rubber room," a holding pen for
teachers waiting to face disciplinary charges. In his first year, 17
teachers received an unsatisfactory rating.

Several teachers
described Resnick as a "bully" who goes after employees - particularly
older, disabled or minority teachers - by issuing bad ratings or
bringing false disciplinary charges.

Two lawsuits have been brought against him and the Department of Education in federal court; a third is expected.

"If
he doesn't like you, he will target you," charged Spanish teacher
Gloria Chavez, who was pulled from the classroom last year. "I've been
teaching 16 years, I've never gotten a bad rating. Not one. Now all of a
sudden I'm in trouble."

Teachers concede the school had
discipline problems when Resnick arrived, and understand his desire to
get tough - just not at their expense.

"His way to fix the
problems is to harass the teachers and blame us," said Josefina Cruz, a
Spanish teacher who said most of the instructors targeted are
minorities, even though the student body is 95 percent Hispanic and
black. "We're not the problem."

Many
Reporters have written about the so-called Rubber Rooms in New York
City to which Faux Chancellor Joel Klein, Esq.'s Board of Education
illegally banishes and "disappears" any NYC Teacher who they deem a
"persona non grata"

While credit for keeping this issue before
the public's consciousness is deserved by many, including Norm Scott of
EdNotes, "Under Assault", Education expert/author, Karen Horwitz in
Chicago, "South Bronx Teacher" and so many others, too numerous to
mention- Betsy Combier has carved out a nitch all her own.

Ms.
Combier not only writes relentlessly about all the injustices in the
NYC Schools System, but her knowledge of the Rubber Rooms, in
particular, is based on her getting up close and personal with the
horrors visited on the victims sent there.

Betsy has been in all
the Rubber Rooms, not as a detainee herself, but as an Advocate for the
Teachers incarcerated in these abominations, on a daily basis.

Betsy,
who takes her fiduciary responsibility to research her facts seriously,
has met with countless hundreds of Rubber Room Teacher victims.

She
knows who has been condemned to the Rubber Rooms for the crime of being
a Whistle-blower, or the crime of allegedly being too "old"
or the crime of having a position that "someone else" wanted for him/herself.

There
are as many reasons why people are condemned to the Rubber Rooms as
there are Teachers inhabiting those bizarre places that defy any type of
rationality for existing in a civilized society.

Ms. Combier has
done much to try to expose the corruption, criminality, and vicious
injustices that exist in the NYC Public Schools system- which her own
four Daughters attended for years.

Five years ago Betsy Combier
was the very first NYC Reporter to take up my cause, which is really the
cause of all people everywhere.

That is to say, to live their
lives in dignity and to be able to follow their chosen career without
having to worry about being victimized or retaliated against for
speaking up and speaking out if they see something that is wrong and
hurtful to themselves or others.

It is thanks to people like
Betsy Combier, who has assisted, helped and defended so many New Yorkers
when no one else would, that a monumental debt is owed that can never
be adequately repaid.

Fortunately, for Ms. Combier, her greatest
sense of remuneration is knowing that she is doing what we are all put
here on Earth to do, in short to improve other people's lives.

So
carry on all your great work and great Reporting Ms. Combier. You have
much to be proud of and all we New Yorkers are more than Proud of you.
__________________________________

TV Appearances by Betsy Combier

Lawline

Contact me with a concern or issue

I assist anyone who needs help, so email me your problem to start the ball rolling! I am a teacher/parent advocate, and I am the editor/writer for this blog and the website parentadvocates.org. I also write about court corruption on my blog "NYC Court Corruption". I am interested in random injustice and the criminalizing of innocent people. If you want to chat you may email me at: betsy.combier@gmail.com and I'm on twitter and have a facebook page too. I'm not an attorney and do not give legal advice.

If you want to talk with me about your 3020-a charges, I consult and go over your case without charge. No fee.

And, in response to the lies of certain individuals who resent my work, the truth is that all conversations are confidential and I do not tape secretly.

Testimonial from an Exonerated Teacher

Dear Betsy,I am forever indebted to you, Betsy, for your expert counsel throughout a horrific ordeal. You worked tirelessly to prove my innocence in a 3020a proceeding that was instigated by a corrupt school district and fueled by lies. My proceedings ended with my complete exoneration, my record expunged and my immediate return to the classroom. We didn't even need to file an appeal! Thank you, Betsy. I am now eligible to retire and enjoy the benefits you helped me to protect. God bless you and the work you do protecting the innocent.Sincerely,Maria Gargano

My Thoughts and Raison d'etre

This blog is about the denial of Constitutional rights by the Mayor, the New York City Department of Education and the Chancellor, New York State and Federal Courts, New York State legislature, and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), as well as PACs and all parties participating in the business of public school education in New York City, to harm and in neglect of parents, children, and staff of public schools in the five boroughs. These thoughts are not simply mindless conclusions reached out of thin air, but a result of 14 years of research into the NYC DOE and the Courts as a reporter and paralegal.
I am an advocate of Unions and union rights, public schools and charters, and learning online as well as outside of the classroom. I cannot and do not support anyone, whether they be union management, government, private members of the political or legal system, or simply retired teachers with an agenda, if he or she tramples, discards, or rebuffs anyone's individual civil rights. As a reporter, journalist, advocate, researcher and paralegal, I have created this blog to inform the public about my experience working for the UFT and being the parent of four daughters who went through the public school system in NYC, as well as examine issues that flow from the massive denial of due process rights that I saw and have documented. The two most important points you should remember: first, everyone at the New York City Board/Department of Education and all Union bigs are motivated by power and money, and looking good. If anyone dares to blow the whistle on these racketeers, retaliation follows, so be a strategist; second, I am not an Attorney and nothing I write or say is legal advice, simply my thoughts. Take 'em or leave 'em.
Betsy Combier, Editor
NYC Rubber Room Reporter
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com
New York Court Corruption
http://newyorkcourtcorruption.blogspot.com
Parentadvocates.org
http://www.parentadvocates.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/betsy.combier
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BetsyCombier
The NYC Public Voice
http://nycpublicvoice.blogspot.com/betsy.combier@gmail.com
Lawline July 27, 2011
http://www.teachem.com/lawlinetv/learn/lawline-tv-teachers-unions-the-last-in-first-out-rule/

Principal Anne Seifullah changes her image so that she can keep her job amidst sexting and trysts in the school, Robert Wagner Secondary Sch...

Google + Rubber Room Community

FAITH

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly. Patrick Overton

Truth Seeks Light - Lies Seek Shadows

Twins Jill Danger (left) and Betsy Combier(right)

sayin like it is

Actions Have Consequences

Writing as Music

Rubber Room teachers wish me a happy birthday (2006)

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."

Rubber Room Satire

The Labor Movement

The Teaching Equation

We Can Work Out Our Differences

The E-Accountability Foundation

The E-Accountability Foundation brings you this blog which highlights issues that have or should be read by people interested in civil rights, and accountability. The E-Accountability Foundation is a 501(C)3 organization that holds people accountable for their actions online and, through the internet, seeks to bring justice to anyone who has been harmed without reason. We give the'A for Accountability' Awardto those who are willing to blow the whistle on unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status.

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Performance Management - Office of Labor Relations

From Betsy Combier

The NYC Office of Labor Relations, with the support of the UFT, has issued to principals a document called"Performance Management" on how to get rid of an incompetent teacher. Who is an "incompetent teacher"? Anyone the NYC Department of Education wants to remove from the system because he/she is too senior (makes too much money), is disabled (and therefore cannot be deemed factory-perfect) and/or is other impaired (is a whistleblower, cannot be intimidated, is ethnically challenged - not the 'right' race, etc).

Candace R. McLaren

Director, Office of Special Investigations (OSI)

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Polo Colon

"Rubber Room"

(1) a space where a worker subject to a disciplinary hearing or other administrative action waits and does no work; generally, a place or personal mind-set of isolation.(2) a literal reference to a padded cell, which is, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, “a room in a psychiatric hospital with padded walls to prevent violent patients from injuring themselves.”from Double-Tongued Dictionary http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/rubber_room/

"Rubberization"

The word "rubberization" is a new word that is used to describe the process of assigning and paying people to sit and do nothing in a drab room away from their place of employment while their employers make up charges that allege sexual or corporal misconduct without any facts upon which to base the allegation on.

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Theresa Europe, NYC BOE ATU Director

Robin Greenfield

Deputy Counsel to the NYC DOE

UFT Pres. Mike Mulgrew and NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg

UFT umbrella pals

New York State Supreme Court Judge Manuel Mendez

ATR CONNECT

Tenured Teachers who are found to be guilty of misconduct or incompetency at 3020-a but are not terminated, who have blown the whistle on the misconduct of politically favored NYC Department of Education employees, and/or who are simply disliked for any reason can suddenly find themselves in the ATR ("Absent Teacher Reserve") pool - employees without rights or voices, and without chapter leader union representation.

This new group of people are the "new" rubber roomers without representation at the UFT and denied the protection of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, because basically they have been pushed out of their jobs unfairly and under color of law by Mayor Bloomberg and the Chief Executives of the Department of Education who call themselves "Chancellors", "Network Leaders", "Superintendents", etc., consistently without any facts or evidence to support the false claims.

A group of teachers who are, or were, made into ATRs, ATR Polo Colon, and I, Betsy Combier, an advocate for transparency and labor/employment rights, have joined together to expose the denial of due process, civil and human rights by chiefs of the NYC Department of Education (NYC DOE), certain arbitrators at 3020-a, leaders of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the "investigators" -agents who work for the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI), Office of Special Investigation (OSI), and the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) - and the Attorneys who work for the New York United Teachers (NYSUT), and the New York Law Department (Corporation Counsel).

In order to protect the safety of those who join this group to promote an end to the "Rubberization" process described on this blog since 2007, names of those who tell their stories will, for now, remain anonymous if the person so desires, and Polo and I will be the gatekeepers. So if you are an ATR, or know a story involving an ATR or someone re-assigned or about to go into a 3020-a, please use the email address advocatz77@gmail.com and give us your contact information. We will protect your anonymity and hold onto your privacy.

Betsy Combier and Polo Colon, Editors

FAITH When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.

Patrick Overton

We have forty million reasons for failure but not a single excuse.Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The Re-Assignment Overview by Betsy Combier

The New York City Board of Education decided in 2002 to rid the public school system of staff who interfered with their takeover and control. The criteria for a "good teacher" is now, more often than not, a "silent teacher", a person who never asks questions, is younger than 40, is making a salary below $50,000, does not care about kids and what they learn, or whether or not money (books, supplies, equipment, etc) is missing. When a teacher or staff member of a school dares to do the right thing and speaks out about wrong-doing - this person is often called a "whistleblower" or "flamethrower" - or, simply is not liked for any reason by the Principal/NYC personnel, suddenly he/she is accused of something by somebody ("given a label of "A", "B", "C", and so on) and whisked away to a drab room called a temporary re-assignment center or "rubber room". Members of the offices of the Special Commissioner of Investigation or the Office of Special Investigations then start work on building a case against the person to justify their being thrown in prison, declared "unfit for duty", or, as Mr. Joel Klein has said, characterized as "guilty of sexual activities and corporal punishment" against the children of New York City.The stories of the people I have met who sit every day in the 8 rubber rooms of NYC prove to me that Mr. Klein is very wrong about his assessment, and this blog is created to prove it to you.

Puppy Snooze

US Department of Labor ELAWS

Aeri Pang, Gotcha Squad Attorney

Attorney Pang, red dress, now chief Attorney For New York State Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Kern

New York State Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Kern

NYC EdStats You Can Use

$12.5 billion: Annual New York City Department of Education (DOE) budget (2002)

$21 billion: Annual New York City DOE budget (2009)
1,719: Number officials employed by the DOE central administration in June 2002

2,442: Number of officials employed by the central administration as of November 2008

2: Number of DOE officials earning more than $180,000 per year in 2004.

22: Number of DOE officials earning more than $180,000 per year in 2007.

5: Number of DOE public relations staffers in 2003.

23: Number of DOE public relations staffers in 2008.

944: Number of contracts approved by DOE in 2008, at a total cost of $1.9 billion.

20: Percentage of contracts that exceeded estimated cost by at least 25 percent.

$67.5 million: Annual budget of Project Arts, a decade-old program that was the sole source of dedicated funding for arts education. It was eliminated in 2007.

86: Percentage of principals who said in a 2008 poll that they were unable to provide a quality education because of excessive class sizes in their schools.

100,000: Number of seats DOE plans to provide for charter school students by 2012.

25,000: Number of seats DOE plans to build under 2010 to 2014 capital plan.

66,895: Number of K-3 school-children in classes of 25 or more during the 2008-09 school year.

15,440: Average number of seats per year built during the last six years of the Rudolph Giuliani administration.

10,895: Average number of seats per year built during the first six years of the Bloomberg administration.

27.2: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2001-02 who were Black.

14.1: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2006-07 who were Black.

53.3: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2001-02 who were white.

65.5: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2006-07 who were white.

76: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Latino students in 8th grade English Language Arts (ELA) in 2003.

75: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Hispanic students in 8th grade ELA in 2008.

77: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Hispanic 8th graders in math in 2003.

81: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Hispanic 8th graders in math in 2008.

54: Percentage of New York City public school parents who disapproved of Mayor Bloomberg’s handling of education, according to a March 2009 Quinnipiac poll.

Sources: New York City Council, New York City Comptroller’s Office, New York Daily News, New York Post, Eduwonkette, Quinnipiac Institute, Black Educator, Class Size Matters, New York City Schools Under Bloomberg and Klein.

Betsy Combier and NYSUT lawyer Chris Callagy

The New York City Whistle Award

NYC Whistlers, Winners of the NYC Whistle Award

...are those individuals in New York City who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. Whistlers ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up.

These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions.

Congratulations, and keep up the good work!

Betsy Combier

Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon

Condon "qualified" for his current post after Bloomberg lowered standards; who will leash him?

A great teacher

After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said: 'Let me see if I've got this right.

'You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.

'You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.

'You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job 'You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams.

'You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.

'You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletinboard, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps. 'You want me to do all this and then you tell me. . . I CAN'T PRAY?

NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly

Joel Klein's famous statement about rubber room teachers and staff

On November 27, 2006, temporarily re-assigned teacher (TRT) Polo Colon asked Joel Klein, the "pretend" Chancellor of the NYC public school system, if he had voted to terminate teachers at the secret Executive Session held just before the public meeting of the Panel For Educational Policy.Mr. Klein answered,"We did not vote to terminate you. We did vote to terminate a teacher in executive Session...in fact, we voted to terminate two teachers. It's perfectly consistent with the law.Many teachers have been charged with sexual activities and some are charged with corporal punishment...I have no interest in removing people who are qualified to teach, I can assure you, because I dont get any return...and in fact, I have complained publicly about how long this process drags out. But our first concern will always be and, as a former lawyer and somebody who clerked on the United States Supreme Court I will tell you, there is no violation of due process whatsoever..."- extracted from the audiotape of the PEP meeting bought by Betsy Combier after filing a FOIL request to the NYC BOE

November 26, 2007 Candelight Vigil

The School Law Blog

A Review of Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools by Betsy Combier

Lydia Segal's book puts the NYC, Chicago, and California Departments of Education on notice....we who have read this book know more about how the system is not there for our kids than "you" want us to know. Lydia Segal's book Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools changes the public school reform movement forever. We can no longer assume that more money allocated to our schools will "fix" the disaster that is our public school system.

Lydia Segal draws on her 10 years of undercover investigation and research in over five urban school districts, including the three largest, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and the two most decentralized, Houston and Edmonton, Canada, to provide, in her new book Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools, the details of the corruption, theft, fraud, and patronage that has overrun our public school establishment for several decades. There is no question that anyone who is interested in school reform -this means anyone who pays taxes, is a parent or guardian of a child attending school and/or who works toward a goal of establishing an education system that puts children first - must read this book. Ms. Segal's research and information on the education establishment's 'dark' side outrages the reader, and incites us to demand change. Her book therefore, is much more than a book, it is a call to action. We cannot be bystanders any longer to the systemic abuse she so vividly describes, and we will never be able to listen in the same way ever again to school Principals, Superintendents, school custodians or district board members as they request more money "to help the children."

The book's detailed reports on the corruption and crime in our public schools, supported by 52 pages of interview notes, references and specific examples, provide irrefutable evidence that the current failures of our nation's public schools are not due to the lack of money but the impossibility of getting the money to the children who need it and for whom the money is allocated in the first place. Recent statistics show that students of all ages are not learning what they need to know, schools are overcome with violence, teachers are demoralized, and yet billions of dollars are literally shovelled into the system every year. The New York City school system receives more than $16 billion every year; Los Angeles, $7 billion; and Chicago, $3.6 billion. Where does this money go? We have all asked this question as we have walked through school hallways dodging the paint falling off the walls and ceilings, watching our children sitting on broken chairs, using bathrooms without running water or toilet paper, and struggling to achieve their personal best without the services and resources they are supposed to have. Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools is the first book ever to systematically examine school waste and corruption and how to fight it. Ms. Segal, an undercover school investigator turned law professor, documents where the money goes, how waste and fraud embedded in the operation of large school bureaucracies siphon money from classrooms, distort educational priorities, block initiatives, and what we can do to bring badly-needed change. She describes in detail how only a small percentage of the money allocated to students in our public schools actually gets used by them due to corruption and waste, and how city school systems scoring lowest on standardized tests tend to have the biggest criminal records and most payroll padding. Coding problems, the procurement process, compartmentalization and opacity of information leave administrators with only two options: good corruption (which ultimately helps the kids) and bad corruption (which never helps anyone but the perpetrator and his/her allies and accomplices). Indeed, the system fights those who try the good corruption route.

Ms. Segal argues that the problem is not usually bad people, but a bad system that focuses on process at the expense of results. Decades of rules and regulations along with layers of top-down supervision make it so hard to do business with school systems that they encourage the very fraud and waste they were designed to curb. She tells us about how the "godfathers" and "godmothers" (the school board members) obtain jobs for their "pieces" in order to protect the systemic waste and fraud from being dismantled or exposed. Fortunately, she writes, there are good people involved in the corruption as well who must violate the rules in order to get their jobs done. Nonetheless, absurdities abound: school systems following rules to save every penny spend thousands of dollars hunting down checks as small as $25; it takes so long to pay vendors for their work that some have to bribe school officials to move their checks along; caring Principals who want to fix leaky toilets may have to pay workers under the table because submitting a work order through the central office could, and often does, take years. Meanwhile, those who pilfer from classrooms get away with it because the pyramidal structure of large districts makes schools inherently difficult to oversee. What makes Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools a must-read is not only the fascinating - and depressing - details of the systemic wrong-doing but also Ms. Segal's suggestions for reform, based on the proven track records of school systems across North America that have successfully reduced waste and fraud and have pushed more resources into schools.

The pathology of the corruption suggests the remedy, Ms. Segal says, which is decentralization of power into the schools and the hands of the Principals. Distilling what successful school systems have done, Segal advocates new forms of oversight that do not clog up school systems and recommends giving principals more discretion over their school budgets as well as holding them accountable for job performance. She argues for "autonomy in exchange for performance accountability" as part of a bold, far-reaching plan for reclaiming our schools. Her conclusion is logical and convincing. Everyone who reads this book will find his or her perception of public school education changed forever. We cannot accept any longer that a generation of children has been abused by a system that is so full of greed and corruption without screaming "stop!" and "Your game is up!"

Segal reveals how systemic waste and fraud siphon millions of dollars from urban classrooms and shows how money is lost in systems that focus on process rather than on results, as well as how regulations established to curb waste and fraud provide perverse incentives for new forms of both. Anyone who is interested in school reform--this means anyone who pays taxes, is a parent or guardian of a child attending school, and/or who works toward a goal of establishing an education system that puts children first--must read this book. --

Lydia G. Segal is Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Public Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

The NYC BOE FAMIS Online Tour

The FAMIS Portal Online Tour provides an overview and demonstration of the FAMIS Portal. Computer speakers or headphones are recommended. Choose an item of interest below, or click on the Introduction to proceed through all of the modules in sequence.

About Me

Reporter, paralegal, advocate,I will investigate, search on the internet and in all data bases for information that will help a person in need of resolution to a problem.I believe in substantive and procedural due process for all individuals, groups and organizations and trademarked the term "e-accountability" to describe the purpose of my work. I am the parent of four daughters.

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